Assessing augmented reality in helping undergraduate students to integrate 2D and 3D representations of stereochemistry

Matan Berson, Derek Ng, Jumi Shin, Jodie Jenkinson

Abstract

Organic chemistry students exhibit greatdifficulty grasping stereochemistry and chemicalbond hybridization concepts. The 2Drepresentations of molecules presented to themin lectures and exams serve as tools forcommunication between professional chemists.However, these students’ ability to link themolecular formulas, 2D pictures, geometricstructures, and molecular characteristics hasrepeatedly been found challenging. 2Ddepictions, physical model sets, and 3Dcomputer models are currently used inclassrooms and courses in an attempt to tacklethe problem of tying the 2D representations tothe 3D stereochemistry properties but eachtool falls short in one aspect or another. In thepresent study, we examine how an augmentedreality (AR) mobile app combining 2D and 3Drepresentations may be used to supportunderstanding of these concepts.